Oshkosh man sentenced to 3 years in prison for elder financial abuse and tax fraud

OSHKOSH – Terry Lynn Culver, a 64-year-old Oshkosh man, was sentenced Friday to serve three years in prison followed by six years of supervised release, the Wisconsin Department of Justice said Monday.

In October, a jury found Culver guilty of eight felonies involving his theft of more than $426,000 from a 92-year-old woman and filing false tax returns.

Culver acted as power of attorney over the woman when she was put in a nursing home in 2013, according to the criminal complaint. A court terminated his power of attorney in 2018, but in those five years, Culver sold multiple pieces of the victim’s real estate, took possession of her house and wrote multiple checks worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from the woman to himself or his business, ANK Farms.

Culver used the money he stole from the woman at casinos in Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota and Nevada, for home improvement projects, at bars and restaurants and to purchase a car, appliances and furniture, the complaint said.

Culver also filed false income tax reports for five years, never claiming the money he took from the woman.

While Culver already repaid $148,800 according to the criminal complaint, part of his sentence was to pay nearly $260,000 plus surcharges in restitution to the victim's estate and about $9,200 to the Wisconsin Department of Revenue. The court also granted the state's petition to seize Culver's home to help pay the restitution.

A notice of intent for Culver to pursue post-conviction relief was delivered Friday, according to public records.

Natalie Brophy and Bremen Keasey contributed to this report.

Rebecca Loroff is a breaking and trending news reporter for USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin. Contact her at rloroff@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Oshkosh Northwestern: Oshkosh man gets 3 years prison for elder financial abuse, tax fraud